QuoteQuest“Only the great generalizations survive. The sharp words of the Declaration of Independence, lampooned then and since as 'glittering generalities,' have turned out blazing ubiquities that will burn forever and ever.”
Verification
AttributedRecorded by a reliable secondary source; exact wording may differ.
Imported from Wikiquote; not yet checked by QuoteQuest against the original source.
Source
- Title
- Wikiquote: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Type
- reference · Secondary source
- Held by
- Wikiquote
Context
From a lecture on Books given in the Fraternity Course in Boston in 1864; the quoted phrase 'glittering generalities' had been used by Rufus Choate to describe the declaration of the rights of man in the Preamble to the Constitution
Cite this source
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. (n.d.). Wikiquote: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Wikiquote. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson
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Provenance: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA)